The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-01-27
CHINESE FARMING.
Agricultural Doings Among
the Pig-Tailed Celestials.

Agricultural Doings Among
the Pig-Tailed Celestials.
Neat and Productive Farms, Good Garden.
ing and Myrials of Trees
In passing through tho silk growing
district which begins very near to
Shanghai and extends all around to the
city of Hangchow, writes correspondent
Of the London Post, could but be
struck indeed with the comfort which
prevailed everywhere. Tho farm houses
Of China, or at any rate in that part o!
China, were models of what farm houses
should be. l had expected to see squalor
and wrctchcdncss, and was i'll prepared
for what really beheld. Exceedingly
good gardening I was of course prepared
for, for Chinese gardning is synonymous
with everything that is neat and pro-
ductive. But the orchards and null
berry trees all beautifully trimmed, with
the brick built and G. cXcellent houses half
hidden away in them, certainly astonish-
cd me. / CHANGED to land from my
housc-boat frequently in order to shoot
woodcock, for it was winter time when l
passed through the district. To get these
birds it was necessary to scramble over
the fields and through the mulberry
orchards of the district, and
I was simply amazed to see how
beautifully the groves of trees were
kept. Underneath great quantities of
vegetables were grown, not foot Of
earth appeared to DO wasted, and every
inch was in the most superb order. Had
the whole country been avast garden, it
could not have been better tended and
cared for. There were not hereabouts
any hedges or walls, the fields were
divided from each other by deep dykes,
which served the double purpose of
marking out the land and irrigating or
draining, as the case might be, the
ad jacent soil. The trees, of which
there were myriads, were all planted
with mathematical cxactncss and in the
greatest order, unlike the trees in many
English orchards, which seem to have
been stuck into the ground with view
Of wasting as much space as possible.
And as for the tops of the trees, they
had all been carefully trimmed to the
same pattern, every lite bough having
been inspected and cut as circumstances
CHANGED to require. Incver saw any
thing half so orderly in any country in
the world, for these were no ornamental
gardens which I was going through, but
mulberry orchards, extending over
hundreds of square miles of country
and owned by thousands of
! different husbandmcn. Inside the
house, again, was surprised at the
comfort which prevailed. In each one
there were at least two rooms set apart
specially for the silk-worms, and these
were kept scrupulously clean. The
other rooms of the house were we'll fur
nished, comfortable, and warm-in
every case very clean also; and did not
see in any country house any Of the
squalor or misery one secs in many
English, Scotch, and especially Irish
districts
At the time when l was in this ccun-
try too, there was very general feeling
af increased contcntmcnt springing up
wing to the opening OF some large silk
winding factories at Shanghai by Ameri-
can and Enghsa firms. Hitherto the
winding of the silk from the cocoons had
been done in most cases by the silk
growers themselves, and the demand for
the silk thus indifferently wound and
tho prices paid for it were alike small.
But with the establishment of silk wind
ing factories filled with steam machinery
at Shanghai it was hoped and cx.
pected by the silk-growcrs that the
price Of cocoons woald go up,
and that consequently silk growing
would improve as an industry. In any
case the entire population seemed to be
prosperous and well contcntcd. 1t does
not always do to take the dress of any
Chinaman as an index to the wealth he
may possess. He may have many rca,
sons - among them being 4
dread of attracting tho attention
Of some rap1cious mandarin
for not showing more richness of attire
than is absolutely necessary, aud he may
prefer to 60 about in warm rags than rur
the risk of being Squeezed" by the 10.
cal officials, so that many a traveller may
mistake their intentional poverty of at
tire for want of money. l hal pointed
out to me in Canton one day, for ex.
ample, particularly woc-begone look
ing Chinaman going up the street
The gentleman who was with me, ant
who was resident on the adjacent isl
and of Shamicn, said, 'Poor Z l wisl
was as rich as that Chinaman, Why
half the European houses here are in hi
debt, but if he shovel this by his dres
the mandarin here would soon borrow
trife of him."
The Submarine Boat.
VIII rafo.o,,o e. .hs .,,b,,,,u;no bo,t